Just about everyone who read the story thought the assignment was a bad idea. However, Boston University religion scholar, Stephen Prothero thinks that no harm was done when the teacher gave the Nazi related assigned. He writes:

I think it’s Greenfield [New York City Councilman] who is lacking in common sense here. And it’s the superintendent who is being illogical.

I suppose it is possible that the teacher is a closet Nazi attempting to reconstruct the Third Reich in Albany. But isn’t it more likely that he or she is trying to teach students about the dangers of propaganda and the horrors of the Holocaust?

Consider the student who felt “horrible” about doing this assignment. Is that really a bad thing? How are high school students today supposed to feel about Nazism and the Holocaust?

Apparently, what they are supposed to feel (and think) is nothing, because the lesson high school teachers are going to take away from this fiasco is to avoid this topic at all costs, lest they risk losing their jobs.

When I was an assistant professor at Georgia State University in Atlanta, I used to teach Nazi theology. My students read sermons by Nazi theologians arguing that Jews were evil and were responsible for killing Jesus. They also read a book called “Theologians Under Hitler” by Robert P. Erickson, who tried to explain how and why Christian thinkers could come to believe that exterminating Jews was somehow Christ-like.

Thank goodness for rational minds and common sense. Obviously the teacher wasn’t promoting Naziism, but attempting to teach how propaganda works. Now he/she has gotten a taste of what mob mentality does to people – forced leave for an assignment that would probably be one of the more effective assignments those kids have ever done.

Would it be possible to frame the assignment as follows:
Statement: Nazi propaganda depicted Jewish people as evil.
Assignment:
1. Based on the history of Jewish life and communities in Europe prior to the rise of the Nazi regime defend the position that Jews were not evil;
2. Based on the philosophy, actions, and propaganda of the Nazi regime defend the position that it was the Nazis who were evil.

It’s much too infrequent that people practice the exercise of understanding the motives behind opposing views, no matter how abhorrent. Yes, this was an extreme example of the practice and, given a second chance, perhaps a less controversial and offensive topic would have been chosen. But for the exercise to have value to the students, maybe it takes an extreme example to drive home the point. I think the issue of abortion would have been a good topic. No doubt, many anti-abortion activists would find the assignment (that is, to argue FOR abortion rights) to be abhorrent, against their morals, etc. And vice versa. But how much better off we’d be, and how much more informed the dialogue would be, if those loudly expressing their views actually took the time and effort to understand the motives of those voicing opposing views. The more I think about it, the more I’m convinced that the assignment in question would improve the reasoning skills of the students (but not without a lot of careful oversight by the teacher).

Perhaps a more acceptable assignment to teach the students about racial or ethnic hatred, would have been to assign the Black students with the task of writing a paper supporting, from the White perspective, the institution of slavery, and assign the Whites in the class to argue the evils of slavery from the Black perspective.

I think some of the displeasure experienced at the whole Nazi assignment, was driven in part by the fact that many in our society (outside of those closely and negatively connected to Nazi atrocities)still identify with such distorted belief, and do not want the students (many of whom will never have the opportunity after high school) to face what is still, in reality, just a shallow scratch below the surface in any society.

It seems, much more frequent of late, that educators seem totally oblivious to issues of common sense when they are trying to make some point, which may be a worthwhile point to try and make.

It’s hard to understand if it’s just a chaotic lack of judgment, an absence of rational consideration of potential counterproductive consequences that may associate with their intended “lesson”, or a simple lack of concern for anything, or anybody, who may be harmed by their myopic view of what is, or if they choose, isn’t relevant.

There are periodic suggestions, from those familiar with current corriculum that far too often history is ignored, or rewritten to foster some ill conceived myth, designed to support some revisionist theory that may neither be factual or accurate, to appease and appeal to some popular concept.

Is it possible that our schools are not teaching today’s students about the horrors and insanity of Nazism. If the understanding that the Nazi concept, and what it produced, under there extreme version of “the ends justifies the means, regardlass of the means”, produced almost pure evil, is there anything that could be then referenced as evil?

The cause of the problem however, may simply be that so many, are so eager to talk themselves into justifing what no rational human couls, or should, be willing to justify.

Prothero is so far off target. I think the best way to teach students about the tragedy of the holocaust and the dangers of hating the apple of God’s eye is to teach them Scripture and history. He taught his student’s Nazi theology? Did this teacher take some of his classes? How many teachers do we have today that did take his class? So many think they need to be the devil’s advocate. Look at the world. Do you really think he needs any help?

I think Albany High has a hard enough time with its reputation having a low ranking and one of the lowest graduation rates. I don’t understand why a teacher would subject high school school students from this school to this type of assignment seeing it already has problems. I can see this being a good assignment in college if kids want to explore it but it sounds like they didn’t have an option.

I do not think this teacher was a closet Nazi, I think he showed poor judgement int eh framing of his assignment.

I’m not Jewish, but I would be greatly offended by this assignment as it will bring out negative stereotypes about Jewish people and may cause the students to embrace some of these assumptions and sterotypes.

How would you feel as a Jewish child in that class?? Persecuted perhaps?

when I was in college I took a middle east history class. 1/3 of the class was Jewish 1/3 Arab and 1/3 curious. the Professor was Libyian. for extra credit we had to write and present to the class the other sides perspective. this became very interesting when a know PLO member was standing in front of the class defindings Israel’s right to exist just as it was not comfortable for me a zionistic observernt Jew to do the reverse and justify the PLO’s side – but we definately gained a better understanding and were able to communicate through words not violence.

I think the teacher may have been trying to make that point – but using a technique that requires a certain level of maturity and intelligence to understand.

If you want to use irony to teach, you need to trust that everyone in the class will understand, and not actually start to believe the propaganda you’re asking them to read. You also need to trust that they won’t use it as an excuse to bully other kids or take a mean-spirited approach to the assignment.

Apparently, that’s too much to ask of many adults – so it’s probably also too much to ask of some high school students. That’s enough to make the assignment inappropriate.

First Nazi Anti-Semitism was an extension of German culture. The Nazi’s did not create it, they only systemized what the German culture alreay believed. The German’s weren’t led anywhere they didn’t want to go.

I’ve read Stephen Protehro’s CCN Belief Blog in the past, but never picked up on this strain of thinking.He certainly is already widely published so he wasn’t operating under “publish or perish.” This is more like “foot in mouth.”

Certainly, having a student take the other side in a debate is educational, however, a reserach paper would have accomplished the same goal, getting the students to understand why German culture embraced anti-semtism, and how the Nazi’s exploited that racism, rather than role play.

James Wahrburg: Yes, the rev would feel the same way no matter who it was. He’s a touchy-feeling goodnik. That’s why he wears the collar.

A college assignment vs. a 10th grade English assignment call for two different levels of reasoning/teaching. It also seems to me that he is just trying to justify something he has already done that other people have called into question.

Also, the rationale that he uses isn’t analogous to this situation. It is quite a different thing to read someone else’s beliefs and philosophies versus to having to formulate and advocate for those beliefs for yourself. I’m not sure there would be too many people complaining (or if the assignment would have made the news at all) if the assignment was simply to read about the Nazi beliefs as opposed to espousing them. I know I wouldn’t have been so opposed.

I agree wholeheartedly with Protheros’ statement. It is said that remembering history is the best way to avoid it. To best “remember” history, we must strive to understand the mindset of those who created that history. This exercise was clearly an attempt to do so.

I applaud this Albany HS teacher. I find the hysterically over-reaction alarming, although sadly not suprising.

Snap out of it Albany. There is nothing wrong with this assignment at all. Let your kids think and do for themselves. Stop being helicopter parents that leave their children unprepared to face the real world. Let them try to think like a Nazi and they will truly understand what a warped view it was/is. I AM A JEW, I am not offended. I welcome the topic. I wish everyone in the world had this assignment. Stop trying to sweep it under the rug, it happened, remember it, and despise it, DON “T LET IT HAPPEN AGAIN! The intended goal was to have kids work outside their comfort zone and write from a point of view they don’t actually share. Very often in school students are asked to defend the indefensible as a learning tool. Our entire court of law is based on this premise. I commend this Teacher and I condemn the politics that has even made this an issue. Albany Schools you bring your reputation upon yourselves. Not by this assignment, but thru your reaction to it. Please try to join the 21st Century.

How would you feel as a Jewish child in that class?? Persecuted perhaps?

Actually, ann, I AM Jewish (ethnically speaking) and my Jewish paternal grandfather served in WWII in the Pacific. My mother’s ENTIRE family (outside of her parents, her sister and her) were living in occupied Norway, and the entire time of the occupation they had no idea if anyone was alive or dead.

Having said that, I will say that I have no problem with the assignment (I asked my father who is of Jewish descent, and he has no problem with it either); in fact, given my own independent studies and learning about WWII, I feel it is a very necessary one. I know when I was going through World History classes in high school (20 years ago now) the teachers did a very crappy job in teaching about the subject of WWII. In fact, it wasn’t until I watched The Winds of War, quite recently, that I found out the it is a LIE that the US was neutral before Pearl Harbor. Ever hear of the Lend-Lease Program? Because I certainly didn’t when I was in school!

In addition, I highly doubt that the vast majority of the pearl-clutchers yelling and screaming about this can articulate in a scholarly manner the reasonings behind the rise of Nazism in Germany and the rest of Europe back in the 1930′s. If I were a student doing this assignment, I would go beyond just looking at the propaganda that was generated during that period and do some serious researching about the topic. Like it or not, the Nazis felt they had valid reasons to feel the way they did, and the only way to really learn about it is to examine the topic from their side. That was one thing my father told me – the only way to REALLY learn about WWII and more specifically the Holocaust is from the people who went through it. And even when you do, it is hard to wrap your brain around the WHY about it.

BTW, ann, have you ever watched War and Remembrance? If you ever do, keep in mind that a lot of the extras in the concentration camp/gas chamber scenes (which were filmed in the real camps) were actual Holocaust survivors. They participated because they felt they HAD TO, for their own sakes.

I fully support what the teacher assigned 100%. How can students understand the mindsets of people in Germany during the Holocaust, unless they put themselves in those people’s shoes? They need to think like the German people thought, be influenced by what were exposed to, and live their lives. It is hard to understand how so many German people at that time could just stand by and let Jews be persecuted and killed. We need young people to understand what it was like during that time, from both sides of the German experience. What a great assignment that has been totally misunderstood by people who will not allow themselves to see the good in it. It’s not about a disregard for the feelings of the Jewish people, it’s about helping students to understand how such as horrific thing as the Holocaust could have happened in the first place.

For several years in the school district of Averill Park, there has been an event known as the “slave auction day,” where young children are given the “opportunity” to experience what it would be like to be a slave for the day. Although it seems odd to think a school full of educators would miss the fact that having a large body of students “pretend to be minorities,” in fact, takes away from the actual experience of marginalization, this popular event nevertheless goes on, un-checked, and as far as I know will take place again this year. Perhaps the small population of minorities, particularly African-Americans, within Averill Park can be held accountable for why this “event,” (that actually ends with a make-believe AUCTION) goes un-checked. The teacher’s assignment needed revision; that does NOT make her a Jew-hating racist; the practice of a slave-auction day is equally offensive; yet, no one seems to be questioning this practice in this area?? Can you say hypocritical??

To the point someone made: yes, it would be useful for people to understand why many whites could justify slavery in antebellum America because of the supposed inferiority of black people, some Biblicly based. Understanding the irrational hatred of Jews in 1930s Germany seems like a worthy exercise.

I am with Mom of Twins. There is a big difference between reading the propoganda and studying the German rationale behind the holocaust, versus asking students to think like a Nazi and use their personal experience to justify the idea that Jews are evil. No one is saying the topic should be swept under the rug. No is suggesting we don’t want to promote critical thinking.

I grew up attending Hebrew school 3 times a week. While in high school, my rabbi who taught my class had us studying and discussing the holocaust from a college level text. High schoolers can operate at a much higher level than what is currently expected. I personally wish for a public school curriculum that honors critical thinking over rote memorization. It is really the specifics of the assignment that, to me, cross the line.

While studying history in thorough detail and analyzing it is crucial to avoid future mistakes, there is a problem with this assignment. It calls for students to look deep into their hearts to find a problem with a specific group. I treat people equally. I have had good and bad experiences with people of all races, colors, creeds, and backgrounds. That being said, asking me to find a reason why we should destroy a specific group is a road no one should be asked to go down. In some lie dark thoughts that can be brought out. It’s not something we talk about, and we know logically we should not attribute it to race or religion, but if you ask someone, “Ever had a bad experience with a …….” They would likely say yes. An assignment like this scares me for the fact that it could open ugly doors. I am a Jew. Not all can appreciate this, what my family went through. I don’t want someone to rant about my great grandfather’s wealth and the justifications for the progroms that drove him out of Poland. Jealousy and ignorance will make one turn hateful. We should not ask anyone to pretend to think like that. That’s why we don’t dress up like Hitler or a KKK member for Halloween. Some things are just not worth exploring. If you disagree, I respect that. But I would never want my children to write a supporive essay as to why their ancestors went into the gas chambers. Hypothetical and devils advocate are valid ideas, but we don’t need to play devils advocate with everything. The class was going to read Elie Weisel. It is safe to say they are being taught comphensive information. We don’t need to explore the the other side. Peace.

This story cries out for more context, more background information, more details, etc. Based solely upon what little has been published, the teacher comes off as literally clueless. I want to think that that is not the case, that there was some “method to the (apparent) madness.”

Certainly, the group-think surrounding the rise of Naziism needs to be understood in the context of the times. According to what I have read and learned over the years, antisemitism was defended at virtually all levels and sectors of gentile society.

I currently happen to be reading “The Pope’s Last Crusade: How an American Jesuit Helped Pope Pius XI’s Campaign to Stop Hitler,” by Peter Eisner. Eisner shows how unpopular pro-Jewish opinion was at the time of the rise of Hitler: So much so that Pius XI’s (Achille Ratti) planned encyclical that would have strongly condemned Hitler was effectively quashed by his secretary of state and future successor, Eugenio Pacelli (Pius XII), and by Wlodemir Ledochowski, the superior of the Jesuit ghost writer recruited for the task by Pius XI, John LaFarge, SJ.

The “common sense” thinking among the Catholic hierarchy at the time was that Naziism was acting much more Catholic-friendly than was Communism, so better suck up to Hitler and focus instead on bashing Stalin. That and the antisemitism that was ran through the European culture at the time, Catholics included.

The encyclical, Humanis Generis Unitas, was never issued. Pope Pius XI was in failing health, and, according to Eisner, he died while the draft encyclical was being kept from him by the conspirators mentioned above.

“We don’t need to explore the other side.” followed by the word “Peace.”
Interesting juxtiposition.
If we don’t “explore the other side,” then how can we come to understand “the other side” and create the mutual understanding for “peace”?
This assignment is something that more teachers should be allowed to do — get their students to “think,” to formulate arguments and positions that, while alien to them at this point, help them to see that the world is not divided into “my side” and the “wrong side,” but many, many shades of truth, lies, beliefs and faiths.
“Peace.” It is more than a word just like “Why?” is more than just a question.

As #24 says though, you don’t speak for everyone. In high school, the students aren’t quite on the level of maturity needed to not take steroetypes away from a project like this -or at least the possibility is high enough that I personally wouldn’t risk it; I would instead teach the nuances of the subject.

If you really want the class to play Devil’s Advocate, argue in favor of kill shelters for cats and dogs. Or take a local issue and make the class take an unpopular side.
Or take a page from Aristophanes and show how it is perfectly appropriate to beat your mother :)”The Clouds” would be an excellent play to read regarding this topic but too dirty for high school.

Whoa, Whoa! Ease up Ishmael. I am a “practicing” JEW and I also had family members who suffered from Nazi Tyranny. However, while I am horrified by the past, I refuse to live my life with my head stuck in the sand or whining about it. I in my schooling had to debate for a grade as if I were pro-abortion, I am totally against it. I had to also debate slavery, this time I was assigned the same side as my belief. The idea is to think from the side that you are uncomfortable with and still be able to put together a document that proves the point on paper, not in reality. How many child actors have had to portray the part of a Nazi, did that turn them into one. What about the actress that played Anne Frank was she unable to go back to her normal life after filming the movie. No because as human beings we have the ability to seperate an assignment from reality. Progressive thinking needs to be accepted and championed for it is an inspiration to greatness!

Imagine the outrage that would have ensued if the teacher had assigned students an essay in which the students were to “think a Nazi” about homosexuals. Choice is the solution to the outrage engendered by the teacher’s assignment.

Perhaps, if students had been given their choice of minorities (which had been subject to extermination camps by the National Socialists, or “Nazis”), then there might not have been the uproar that there was.

For instance, if a student had preferred to “think like a Nazi” regarding say, Jehovah’s Witnesses, or homosexuals, or Russian POWs, or some other minority, then perhaps the outrage would never have arisen. But requiring students to think like Nazis about Jewish people alone was wrong.